AREA COLLEGES: Massasoit men’s basketball team wins Region 21 title

The Warriors defeat Bristol Community College in overtime and are headed to the national tournament for the first time ever next week.

The Massasoit Community College men’s basketball team is headed to the national tournament for the first time in program history.

The second-seeded Warriors won the Region 21 Division 3 championship on Sunday afternoon in Boston with a thrilling 77-74 overtime victory over top-seeded Bristol Community College in Boston.

Massasoit (20-6) will travel to Loch Sheldrake, N.Y., for the eight-team national tourney, which begins March 15.

Four of the starters scored in double figures with Bobby Belezos of Holbrook getting 18 points and Mark Georges of Brockton adding 16.

Rollsky Edouard of Brockton had 15 points and six rebounds while tournament most valuable player Rael Handy of Easton contributed in with 13 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Mark Munroe had nine rebounds, eight points and four blocked shots. Munroe and Edouard joined Handy on the all-tourney team.

Massasoit, which lost two regular-sason games to Bristol (24-8), held a 35-31 halftime but trailed, 55-46, in the second half before going on a 9-0 run.

Edouard sent the game into OT with a 3-pointer with 12.1 seconds to go, making it 64-64.

The Warriors lost three starters to fouls in the overtime and Jared Costa-Hayward of Stoughton came off the bench to help seal the title with two foul shots in the closing seconds.

A Bristol 3-point attempt just before the buzzer hit the rim.

“The guys were pressure players today,” said coach Jim Stapleton. “Rollsky with the big 3 to send it to overtime, Bobby’s big 3s in overtime, Mark Georges making 3-of-4 late free throws and Jared making the biggest two free throws of the season. All of that with three starters fouled out. We survived. So I guess now we get to go to New York.”

Baseball

Bridgewater State splits: The Bears (2-2) split a doubleheader with Hilbert in Vero Beach, Fla., winning the opener, 8-3, and losing the second game, 7-3.

Ryan Kelleher was 3-for-4 with three RBI in the opener and Alex Carey of East Bridgewater, Randy Frazier and Gavin Sparkman had two hits each.

In the loss to Hilbert, Reed Pike was 3-for-3 with a double.

On Saturday, the Bears opened the season by splitting a doubleheader with The Apprentice School, winning, 18-10, before losing, 19-15.

In the win,Frazier went 4-for-4 with two doubles and five RBI while Tyler Morini of Plymouth had five hits and drove in two runs.

Morini was 5-for-5 in the loss while Carey was 4-for-4.

Softball

Bridgewater State swept: The Bears (1-3) lost to Mount Union, 7-4, and Elizabethtown, 8-0, in Leesburg, Fla.

In the opener, Shannon Grindle had three hits.

The season began Saturday with BSU defeating Johnson State, 13-2, in six innings and losing to Southwestern University, 6-0.

Against Johnson State, Grindle went 3-for-3 with a home run and six RBI and Jenny Heller added two hits.